Re: My first map "Clean sweep"

["Marcus Schreiner" <marcus.schreiner@gmx.net>]

> I really like the map. My first thoughts upon starting were
> 1) Too many bunkers.

Yes that I also see as a weakness of the map. 

> 2) THREE artillery units?? What kind of soft cake is this?

Have you ever heard of operation "Hailstorm" they mentioned in the mission
briefing? These are the remaining short range artillery units.

> 3) 20 vs 25 units and not much in the neutral shops. Some enemies
>    damaged even. Granted, they are a little more experienced but
>    that's not going to help them jack.
> In that order. After having actually played it, only 1) still
> stands. It's an interesting setup with several difficult to reach
> spots and a twist. Just when I thought the mission was over the
> commando I had sent to take the headquarters through the back
> door was surrounded by heaps of enemy reinforcements! Rah! Fall
> back! Great!

I am happy to hear that the reinforcements arrived just in time to stop a
sneak attack from the northwest. I was not sure about the turn-number the
reinforcements should arrive. So this works well!

> I still have a few suggestions and one or two technical comments,
> though.
> 
> * You have a city image beneath every Bunkers unit. What's that
>   supposed to do there?

I do not understand that. Which city images?

> * The reinforcements are placed directly on the map. While this
>   is possible I always feel it's kind of awkward and it would
>   be better to let them start in a shop. Otherwise, if you know
>   the map, you may even be able to easily prevent the
>   reinforcements from arriving by blocking the relevant hexes.
>   (I even think I did this by accident with at least one unit
>   in my first game.)

I did not know that you can send reinforcements directly to a shop. As they
are supposed to stop an attack on the HQ it does make sense to let them
start there.

> * There's no briefing for Player 2. (But maybe that's just because
>   you first wanted to make sure the story is acceptable?)

No I considered this to be a campaign map and I thought you are only allowed
to play it as player 1.

> * There's no support for difficulty levels yet. Possible changes
>   from my point of view:
>   easy - give yellow one more infantry and a hovercraft, plus maybe
>          one or two heavy tanks, and reduce the reinforcements a bit.
>          Maybe also remove the blue infantry closest to Wenyn 
>   normal - leave almost as is. I'd probably give blue one or two
>          more experienced tanks
>   hard - take away one yellow artillery and a scout (or two
>          artillery units? Probably gonna be murderous)

I'll try that. But does that mean that you won the map? I thought it is too
hard....

> * You made the reinforcement message event (12) depend on one
>   of the create unit events (0). That's not necessary as there
>   is nothing to prevent event 0 from triggering. The dependency
>   doesn't hurt either, though.

I was not familiar with the events ant the tutorial didn't help me there. I
thought dependency means that the message pops up when event (0) occurs.

> * The forest graphics are jumbled for the western forest.

Even with a magnifying glass I was not able to identify which tiles
represent which part of a forest. I think there is no map tile that can be
used as a southern border of a forest.

> * "Nexus HQ" should be called "Free Nexus Army HQ" or "Rebel HQ"
>   or somesuch. Nexus is the planet. It doesn't have an HQ.

OK!


> * And, of course, I'd take out the two northernmost central bunkers.

But place what instead?
 
> Due to its small size the map is probably best suited for the first
> stage of the campaign when pretty much everything is still Imperial
> territory (not too early, however. The Imperial units have apparently
> had some clashes already, and the map also is a little too demanding
> for "testing the waters", I think). So it would certainly fit in that
> respect. What is not so nice is that we already have a map where
> crossing a river and getting a foothold on the other side is the main
> purpose (Omyar Gorge). Therefore I'd prefer it if you could come up
> with another reason for attacking the Empire here. Due to the story
> not yet being fleshed out you have pretty much freedom to introduce
> even major events which pave the road for several maps after (or
> before). If not, well, we'll find a way to make it fit anyhow. I'd
> certainly like to have the map in the campaign.

How about capturing a highly ranked Commander of the Empire in the HQ? Or
some military knowledge for a special unit?